Echeveria species

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The Most Beautiful and Intriguing Succulents

Echeveria species found in the wild almost two centuries ago have been
grown as houseplants on bright windowsills and in the greenhouses of
collectors for many generations.

An Echeveria species collection in a bright window

The Discovery and Naming of Echeveria

Echeveria were named after Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y
Godoy in 1828 by the French botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle
(DeCandolle) who was very impressed with Echeverría's drawings.

Echeverría
went on the the Sessé and Mociño expedition (led by Martin de Sessé y
Lacasta and Mariano Mociño Suárez de Figueroa) to explore Mexico and
northern Central America and produced thousands of botanical
illustrations.

New species are still being discovered in modern times, one of the latest called Echeveria kimnachii in Mexico and another named Echeveria cante.

The Geographical Origin of Echeveria species

The genus Echeveria is a member of the large Crassula family
(Crassulaceae), which has about 1,400 species in 33 genera with
worldwide distribution.

Did You Know?

Other members of the Crassulacean
family to which Echeveria belongs include Crassula, Sedum,
Graptopetalum, Pachyphytum and several other genera, some of which are so closely
related they can hybridize to form x Graptoveria, x
Sedeveria and x Pachyveria.

The Echeveria genus, with approximately 180 species, is native to mid
to higher elevations in the Americas with the main distribution in
Mexico and Central America.

One species is found from as far
north as southern Texas and several species occur as far south as
Bolivia, Peru and possibly Argentina.

They are discovered only by intrepid explorers, as they tend to grow in inhospitable places such as cliffs and very hot areas.

Cross pollinating the Echeveria species creates new Echeveria hybrids, some of which are sterile so can’t be used for further breeding, others forming the basis of many new forms.

Luckily, the species of Echeveria that are commonly found in collections
are amenable to hybridizing, even though they are beautiful in their
own right. They are pretty spectacular all the time, but they excel once they start to bloom, with tall arching sprays of bell shaped dangly flowers.

In some cases, species can differ depending on the area they originated, making a variety or sub species.

There are new discoveries of previously unknown species even now, making this an exciting journey of discovery.

How can you tell which Echeveria are species, and which are hybrids? In the naming of plants
the species is always denoted by lower case letters, and hybrids named
after a person or with a descriptive name in quotes and capitalized.

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